The Department of Health and Aged Care has begun a trial of direct care targets, also known as care minutes, at 47 Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) sites around the country.
The aim of the trial is to determine the best approach to care minute targets for the MPSs, which provide health and aged care services in regional, rural and remote communities that cannot support both a hospital and separate aged care home.
As of 26 July, 11 sites from South Australia were participating, 26 in Queensland, one in Western Australia and eight in Victoria. All sites will receive additional funding to support the implementation of direct care targets.
The trial will be conducted in four phases.
Tanya Clancy (pictured right), Assistant Director, Rural & Remote Policy and MPS Section, said, "This initiative has been designed to identify an equivalent mechanism to the care minutes requirements for mainstream residential care so that we have assurance of the levels of direct care being provided to residents in MPS."
